Peter Taylor saw Gillingham fall back into old habits in their 2-1 defeat at Bristol City on Saturday.

Slow starts were a theme of Gills’ early-season form and the problem resurfaced at Ashton Gate as Taylor’s side slipped to a third straight defeat, leaving them only three points clear of the League 1 relegation zone.

The visitors trailed to Sam Baldock’s strike at the break and while they did improve, equalising through Charlie Lee, Simon Gillett’s 25-yard strike saw Gills beaten.

Boss Taylor said: “We started too slowly. Bristol were much sharper and played more football than us.

“I think we did get better second half to be fair to us but you can’t afford to start games like we started.

“There’s too many teams in this division that get going all of a sudden when there’s something to fight back for.

“They should be starting at 3pm and we’re guilty of that.

“I’ve not seen that recently. We’ve played some good football so in that respect it’s disappointing.

“To be fair to the players, they kept going and we got a good goal from Charlie and you never know after that but they scored a wonder goal.

“You get a bit critical when you get to our situation because you think ‘could we stop the shot?’ and the chaps tell me there was a slight deflection as well but, fair play, it was a great goal.”